What does the application Klout do that is worth my time allowing it to access my social media sites?

For the personal user it’s nothing more than vanity. However businesses (including the one I work for) use it, and here’s how it was explained to me at work.

My company tracks Twitter and Facebook for hashtags and other mentions of the company’s name or products. Every post is looked at, and if it’s a complaint, a staff member will step in to assist. The Klout score is a measure of how important it is: a Twitterer with high Klout has lots of followers so a complaint on their feed will reach more people than a Twitterer with a low score. So Klout is used as one of the factors in determining the priority of a particular complaint.

I actually requested to be removed from the site. They required access to my twitter and facebook accounts to sign in.

So I give them access to all of my private information and they give me an arbitrary number?
No thank you.

You can opt out here.

Klout (and your Klout score) measures your level of influence and authority on certain topics throughout the Klout community and amongst all the social networks you allow it access to.

It is a social media aggregation site that brings business marketers and entrepreneurs together, along with their social network presence, into one big community. In this way, Klout members can give each other score boosts and such. This is commonly called ‘giving +K’ and each member has limited amounts of Klout score boosts to give.

Those with higher Klout scores tend to be more involved in the social networks, they get more attention, they have more ‘pull’ and tend to have big groups of friends, followers, or what have you. It takes lots of engagement to get to this point, but all of that engagement is usually your own social media and web marketing efforts.

Getting lots of people in your corner (giving you +K boosts and such) helps you rise to the top of the social ladder at Klout, and makes you more important in that space. If you’re sitting in a position with a high level of influence on lots of topics, you can then leverage Klout and its community for marketing purposes. (that’s the end goal and purpose).

Think all that stuff is crazy? In perspective, Klout is a baby compared to its ‘big daddy’ , Empire Avenue (which has a huge community of Klout followers, very well inter-linked between EmpireAvenue and Klout). Check it out and if you stick around, you’ll see what I mean.

These tools are largely for the purpose of social media marketing, and unless you like competitive socializing, a typical user wouldn’t find much use for these places. But they can be a fun little diversion.

There’s a recent xkcd web comic about Klout with jokes I didn’t get (read the mouse-over text, too). But witty as usual.

It doesn’t benefit the average internet user. It’s kind of like a credit report.

People who are trying to scout you out can get a feel of your internet presence. If you apply for a job in social media/marketing or something similar your potential employer can see at a glance the kind of power, presence and infulence that you have on your own.

If you claim you know what you’re doing and have a flat score, then it’s clear you’re BSing. Otherwise, it’s really just another tool for e-peen measuring.